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I did. Only because I was working and I didn't expect her child care providers to stick their fingers in her mouth. We were rid of it right after she turned one. I heard so many horror stories of how she would be a nightmare once I tried to take it away. nope. She cried the first night for about 10 minutes and then the next night she was fine. Her teeth are fine. Never had any stomach issues.

I gave it to my daughter and I didn't find anything wrong with it. I found that it helped her get to sleep. She has never sucked on her fingers so the paci helped her self soothe. I didn't let her use it outside of nap and bedtime unless she was sick and super cranky. I think this made getting rid of it pretty easy. I think it's fine as long as you don't over use and get rid of it around the 1 year mark.

I will probably use one, if my baby takes to it. I will probably use it from the get-go, because I don't believe in nipple confusion (I work in NICU and see babies go from breast, to bottle, to soother all the time without any confusion, if anything most babies actually prefer the breast to any artificial nipple).

I plan to use them when I have a LO. Yes it will be a pain to take it away eventually but I don't want them to be like me. My mother didn't want to use a paci, but I had a really strong desire to suck. So I began sucking my two first fingers. I ended up having all sorts of teeth problems and didn't stop sucking my fingers until I had a pallet expander put in in the THIRD GRADE. My parents tried EVERYTHING (reward systems, putting bad tasting stuff on my nails, etc) to get me to stop sucking my fingers but I just wouldn't. And you can't take away a kids fingers like you can a paci!

we started using a binky in the hospital... She had such a headache from delivery that she was a screaming mess for a day. The binky really helped. as soon as she turns on though, its in the trash.

We tried at 4 weeks (after breastfeeding was well established) because of the SIDS prevention theory. My son wouldn't take it though and now I'm glad we never had to deal with it!

My daughter never needed one. She wasn't a fussy baby and didn't seem to care if we offered her one. She sucked her thumb for a few months when she was tired and frankly I liked that better than having to go into her room in the middle of the night to replace a lost paci. She stopped sucking her thumb on her own around 8 months.

Oh, , one plus would be they're supposed to help decrease the risk of sids.

We used one for our son to help him go to sleep. We were kind of afraid that he would get used to it or need it to go to sleep every night. But one day, he just popped it out of his mouth and handed it to me. And he's never asked for it ever since.

I definitely used a soother (what we called a pacifier) as a baby, and I figure we'll use one for our baby too.

My daughter did not like them she liked them for like a month and never liked them again. I am glad because I cannot stand seeing older kids sucking on pacifiers or fingers... It is so ridiculous. I might try a pacifier this next time again but I am not going to push it. And it will be gone by the first birthday.

Babies have a natural need to self-soothe by sucking so if they don't suck on a pacifier, they'll suck on their fingers. I would rather my LO suck on a pacifier than her fingers because:

1) You can take a pacifier away but you can't take away their fingers.
2) Babies touch all types of germy things with their hands and I'd rather her suck on a clean pacifier than germy fingers.

I just made sure that when I sleep-trained my LO, I trained her without the pacifier. Now she only gets the pacifier if she's extremely fussy.

@Red: I totally agree. My parents were very anti-pacifier, so I never had one when I was a kid. I sucked my fingers instead, and I continued to suck my fingers until I was *9* years old! By that point not only was I being teased regularly, I also had many of my adult teeth in. I ended up needing braces and headgear for years to fix all of the damage that I did to my teeth by sucking my fingers. Our baby will for sure be getting a pacifier, and we plan on weaning her off of the paci at an appropriate age.

RJ was always soothed by sucking, so he had a pacifier (only for falling asleep) all the time the first few months of his life. Once he found his fingers and was able to suck on them, he didn't need his pacifier anymore. He still sucks on his first two fingers every time he goes to sleep, and has a lovey. Honestly, whatever works for you... I don't consider it a problem until their baby teeth fall out and their adult teeth come in. If RJ's still sucking his fingers by then, we'll deal with it then.

As for nipple confusion, I was lucky enough that RJ didn't have any problems there. He took any pacifier, any bottle, etc and also nursed and never had problems. Probably why he was so fat!

When Mavi goes to bed he has his pacifier and then once he's asleep it pops out. I leave it in the bed so hat if he wakes up he can self sooth.

As for the thumb question. My mom took away my pacifier at 2 and clearly wasn't ready so I sucked my thumb until my early teens. So I won't force my son to give up the pacifier. When he's ready he will give it to me on his own.

I don't care what other parents think. I just don't want him to self sooth with a thumb because that habit is much harder to break. My younger sister gave her pacifier to my mom at 5 (only had it to sleep) . But she was the only one out of 4 girls who didn't suck her thumb.

Little late to this but....
I really do not want to use a pacifier. I will try my best not to use one and if we do I want it gone by the time she is 6months.
My nieces and nephews never used pacifiers and never sucked their thumbs. My little cousin (who's not so little anymore!) who I helped raised never used a pacifier either!
I find it to be such a "American" thing but I can be wrong...

@wife09mommy11:
Good tip, did not know that.

@regberadaisy: It seems like pacifiers (or dummys/soothers) are just as prevalent here in the UK as in the US.

We didn't plan to use one and at 5 weeks haven't needed to. I guess our son falls into the group of those that don't need them.